Brent Miller: Points Of Departure

Princess Sage has been very fortunate to have had percussion lessons with Brent Miller. Today he performed Points Of Departure as part of his Masters thesis, and the princess and I were there.

The program was as follows:

Sudhana's Steps: Ananyagamin
Point of Departure #1
Eight pieces for Timpani: Saeta
Point of Departure #2
Sudhana's Steps: Asha
Point of Departure #3
Eight pieces for Timpani: Improvisation
Point of Departure #4
Sudhana's Steps: Priyadarsana
Marimba Concerto

Brent actually played the pieces that were NOT titled Points of Departure. They were played by Ba Da Boom - a group composed of nine players from the Conservatorium.

The pieces Brent played were a joy to listen to as well as watch. His performance had plenty of energy and was enhanced by the lighting that went along with the show. He used the time when Ba Da Boom were playing to re-arrange his instruments for the next piece and I imagine to catch his breath :)

The only downside of having nine timpanists playing at once was that it was hard to watch all of them at once. I felt like I didn't want to miss anything so I was constantly looking from one to another to see what each was doing. At least when Brent was playing we could focus on what he was doing.

The last performance was great too, as much for the piano as for the marimba. Both Brent and Kathy Sander (on piano) looked like they were enjoying themselves, and Brent's performance was at times theatrical. He made playing the marimba look almost effortless (though I know he was working very hard).

The Princess and I spoke to him after the show and shared our thoughts with him. We look forward to seeing him in his next performance in September.